Is Costa Rican Honey-Processed Geisha Coffee Good? Geisha Coffee Brewing Methods

Costa Rica's honey process - "miel" in Spanish - has a character all its own. Only recently did Old Li get his hands on a shipment of Costa Rican red honey beans, and that lot is what prompted a closer look at how Costa Rica handles the honey method.

Brewing a Yellow Honey Lot

Pour-over, yellow honey. 15g of coffee, ground medium-fine (Fuji ghost-tooth burr grinder, setting 3.5), a V60 dripper, water at 91-93°C. Start with a 30g pour and let it bloom for 27 seconds, then pour up to 105g and pause. Once the water in the bed falls to halfway, resume a slow pour up to 225g. Discard the tail end. Ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

A Closer Look at Otis Rock Estate

Costa Rica's Otis Rock processing plant is one of the country's newer estates. The family cooperative was founded in 1994, but it wasn't until 2005 that it built its own mill - 17 years of history by now. The plant sits about 5km north of San Marcos in the Tarrazú region, with ten coffee estates strung out below it - Hacienda Yanón among them - spread across mountain slopes at 1,500-2,000 meters. All of that land is classified SHB (Strictly Hard Bean), the country's highest grade.

Otis 2,000-Meter Estate Geisha - Golden Honey Process

Flavor: the dry aroma opens with delicate spring-tea notes mixed with hints of orange peel and chocolate, then floral tea, rosehip, and green grape. As the cup cools, juicy lemon and peach sweetness come forward. The finish is orange-chocolate.

When it comes to Geisha, many drinkers are captivated by its gorgeous floral aromas and rich fruit sweetness. The 2015 Panama Geisha boom led plenty of people to assume the variety belonged to Panama alone. It doesn't. Geisha was first discovered in Ethiopia in 1931 and, through a long chain of transplants and cultivation, found homes in other countries and regions.

Costa Rican Geisha tends to carry more body than Panama Geisha. If Panama Geisha is fresh and delicate, Costa Rica's is the more reserved style.

Costa Rica lies on the Central American isthmus at 10°N and 84°W, bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the east and the North Pacific to the west. It sits on Central America's low-latitude volcanic belt, with the Central Plateau and mountain ranges at roughly 800-2,000 meters - ideal for coffee. Costa Rican coffee has long been known for an extremely balanced, clean, bright profile with fruit-like berry acidity; the best lots often reveal spice and cocoa in the finish. The country's most famous growing region is Tarrazú, near the capital, San José. Tarrazú has the highest average latitude plus excellent climate and soil, making it Costa Rica's most famous - and generally agreed best - coffee region. Tres Rios is a well-known sub-region within Tarrazú. The most celebrated Costa Rican single-estate coffee in the specialty world is La Minita estate in Tarrazú, whose annual production is only 160,000 pounds.

Costa Rica Tarrazú Honey Geisha

Country: Costa Rica

Grade: SHB

Region: Tarrazú

Roast Level: Light roast

Processing Method: Honey Process

The Honey Processing Method

After the skin and pulp are removed, the beans are dried with their mucilage still attached. What separates one honey process from another is exactly that remaining mucilage: how much is left, how long the beans dry, and how they are dried.

Characteristics of Honey Processing

At harvest, sugar content is tested first, and only cherries with a sugar content between 21-22% are picked. Honey processing differs from other methods in that it requires drying on African beds. Dried directly on cement floors or the ground, the beans can easily be scratched during turning, which invites bacterial infection; ground drying can also lend the coffee earthy flavors.

Honey vs. Washed: What Changes in the Cup

Honey-processed coffee is sweeter, higher in sugar content, and - at the same roast degree - relatively fuller in body.

Beans processed this way need good ventilation while drying. Otherwise the retained mucilage can ferment or mold and produce off-flavors.

The honey styles you'll see most often are Yellow Honey, Red Honey, and Black Honey.

Variety: Geisha

Processing Plant: Otis Rock Processing Plant

Flavor: Floral tea, rosehip, green grape

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If this lot has you curious about Geisha, start with FrontStreet Coffee's Esmeralda Red Label Geisha, formally known as Esmeralda Special. Grown between 1,600 and 1,800 meters, every batch cups above 90 points and carries its own lot number, with all the beans in a batch coming from a single plot - so buyers can choose by the fine flavor differences they prefer. For a more accessible entry, the FrontStreet Coffee Esmeralda Green Label Geisha, or Private Collection, blends several plots to express the estate's signature high-altitude Geisha character at a friendlier price.

For an Ethiopian counterpart, FrontStreet Coffee's Granlana Geisha comes from a processing station set at the border of the Kochore and Granlana Abaya districts. Established in 2014 by Israel Degefa, the station oversees a coffee-growing area of some 700 hectares, much of it uncultivated, with fertile soil and shade trees throughout. Cherries are hand-picked fully ripe and dried on raised beds for 14-20 days depending on the weather. Roasted light-to-medium, it pours a bright citrus acidity, elegant ginger-lily aromatics, ripe-fruit sweetness, and a fine, silky texture with the variety's signature refined finish.